Anna Hazare’s 13-day fast that galvanised much of India raises two issues – one about the Gandhian mode of protest, the other about India’s democracy. A “fast unto death” is basically a form of non-violent civil disobedience. In the land of Mahatma Gandhi, such fasts are not uncommon, but no other fast has captured the national imagination as much as Mr Hazare’s.

Non-violent protests make the state helpless the way violent protests rarely can. The state can easily resort to coercion to deal with violent protest. But if the state uses excessive force to deal with non-violent protest, it often ends up making the protest popular. On the other hand, if the state does not use force, crowds swell as people lose the fear of coercion. This logic was brilliantly understood by Mahatma Gandhi during India’s freedom struggle against British rule. Martin Luther King also put it to work during the US civil rights movement.

But one should be careful about using the term “modern day Gandhi” for Mr Hazare. In his style and living, he embodies radical simplicity – he lives in a small room in a temple in his village, apparently has no bank account, and has no family. And though he is not fighting colonial power, he shows signs of an exemplary Gandhian determination to defy authority. A 13-day fast is not easy to undertake. The suffering is real, so is the possibility of death.